Just found an interesting quote from Jean-Eric Vergne in a column he wrote for Le Nouvle Observateur.

He was talking about his success at the young drivers test.

“I know that the top teams are cautious of young drivers; the only one that dared to go with a young guy recently was Hamilton, and it worked. We have had a similar preparation. I had three days of testing and physically had no problems. So I think if you were to put me in a Red Bull, I would do no worse than Webber. That’s my impression anyway after the test.”

Now Webber hasn’t had the best of seasons but that’s big talk from Vergne. The testing rules were different right before Hamilton came through and he pounded out quite a few laps before his debut.

With Red Bull I always wonder whether he made that comment all on his own or if that’s Helmut Marko stirring up trouble from behind the scenes.

Now I really want Webber to perform better than ever in 2012, at least these kids (including Alguersuari “I am a champions material”) will learn to check high hoarse voice of their.
And these kind of statements does not exudes confidence, just plain desperation.

@vickyy There’s nothing wrong with young drivers expressing their confidence in their ability. Vergne has his opinion and has a right to express that opinion. Webber has had no problem saying what he thinks of other driver’s abilities in the past, so I don’t see any problem in Vergne implying what he thinks of Webber’s ability.

@slr see, as dpod suggested the careful usage of words would have changed the tone of his statement completely. May be I am taking “no worse than” phrase quite seriously, but still it sounds disdainful to Webber.

I agree, that is very rude to Webber, and if you have read my post I´m not exactly a fan. Is just thats I highly dislike this kids that are saying things with out having anything to support their comments. Beside there are better ways to write this things…

@prisoner-monkeys – How about something more like “I’m really thrilled with my performance during testing, and I think I would do a great job if I had a race seat” instead of “Well, I certainly wouldn’t be any worse than THIS guy”? Both are alternatives to “I don’t think I’m very good at it” — but one indicates confidence, whereas the other indicates massive pomposity.

Im sure he didnt meant that, if he did im very dissapointed not very polite and to be honest he cant praise himself too much what he did in Catalunya to Robert Wickens was ridiculous and childish thankfully he lost the title.

There is confidence and there is naïve arrogance. Maybe something got lost in translation, but he needs to remember that he is no more than a promising kid with only a handful of days experience in an F1 car, whereas Webber is a proven race winner with a decade of F1 experience. His time will no doubt come, but comments like this will do him no favours.

I find that as a pretty arrogant statement.
No doubt a racing driver needs to be confident in his ability and believe that he is the new Schumacher, but if they really need to say it out loud, for the love of god, be careful.
If he said that he was ready to take the fight to Mark Webber or he thought that he was as GOOD as him.
Not that I think Webber has done very well this year, but Webber is a grand prix winner, pole sitter, with years and years of F1 experience and added to that one of the most respected drivers in the F1 paddock (at least they said that in 2010…).
Compared to Webber, Vergne is just a kid that has been given a few days to pretend to be one of the big guys.
Not that Vergne can’t be as fast as Webber. It might be possible, but RB has Torro Rosso for testing out new talent. Even Vettel had to go through BMW and one and a half year at Torro Rosso before he was let into RB, which at the time still had not won a single race, when he had in the sister car.
It would be foolish of Vergne to think that we would be let straight into a team which within the last 2 years as won 4 titles, based on three days of testing.